Shop workers say they are facing rising levels of violence, including attacks with harpoon guns and machetes, as reports of shoplifting rise dramatically.
Retailers have warned of criminal gangs clearing whole shelves of products using sacks, backpacks and even wheelie bins.
They say the gangs are "stealing to order", targeting high-value products that can be resold - such as energy drinks and baby powder.
Reported shoplifting incidents have risen from 24,877 in 2021-2022 to 56,920 in 2025-2026. It represents a 129% increase in four years, according to Scottish government figures.
Kate McCrae, retail operations director at Co-op, told BBC Scotland's Scotcast that targeted shoplifting - often with the threat of violence - is becoming more and more prolific.
"It's not like 'I'm in this aisle by chance, I'm going to take all these biscuits'. It's like, 'I'm in for energy drinks or I'm here to get detergent'. It's stealing to order," she said.
She added that many shoplifters were armed.
"We've seen weapons - guns, machetes, knives," she said. "There have also been some extremes where we've had a harpoon gun, for example. You can't even imagine that situation.
"You're busy doing your work, dealing with the customers, dealing with the community, and then from nowhere someone jumps over the counter. That's terrifying.
"The staff are trapped in a space and somebody is threatening them… threatening their life."
She said one Co-op staff member was hospitalised after being hit in the face with a fire extinguisher during a theft.
Amjid Bashir is the owner of the Newsbox convenience store on Queen Street in Glasgow. He says his staff have been abused and attacked by gangs of children aged as young as nine.
"We get mobs of schoolchildren coming in and storming the shop," he said. "They'll come in mob-handed, maybe 10, 15, sometimes 20 of them, and masked up."
Stephanie Karté, chief executive of Stirling-based Retailers Against Crime, said verbal and physical abuse was now a constant threat for shopworkers.
"Retail crime is no longer solely a business issue," she said.
"While the financial losses are significant, the human cost is equally important. The emotional and psychological effects on retail workers can be long-lasting.
"Nobody should go to work fearing they may be threatened, assaulted or intimidated simply for doing their job."
The Co-op has resorted to measures such as putting wine in locked cabinets and GPS-tagging on steaks to prevent thefts. It says those measures, and working more closely with the police, has helped cut retail crime in their stores by 20%.
Insp Emma Wright, from Police Scotland's Retail Crime Taskforce, said: "What we're seeing now is shoplifting on a much more organised scale.
"Groups who sometimes exploit vulnerable people, young people, to steal for them and then sell on those goods at profit."
Wright believes the rising number of shoplifting incidents recorded is partly because shop owners are now more likely to report them.
"We're seeing retailers have more confidence to report to the police," she added. "They're pleased with the response they're getting so they're reporting more offences, but we've also made it easier to report."